The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

John F. Kennedy

Windows XP Shutdown: 10 Facts To Know

The clock ticks for Windows XP holdouts. Explore the key issues before making your next move.

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XP will still run, but you're on your own
Your PC won't implode, melt down, or otherwise cease to function after the April 8, 2014, deadline for Windows XP support. It'll continue to work, but will become increasingly vulnerable to security threats. Why? Because Microsoft won't be sending out any more automatic updates that protect Windows XP from the ever-evolving horde of malware and other risks. It won't provide free or paid assisted-support options, either. Those brave (or clueless) souls who continue to use Windows XP after April 8 will do so at their own risk. Furthermore, more apps and devices won't work with XP when software and hardware makers ditch the platform to focus on newer systems.

How WhatsApp buyout will help Facebook in India

Times of India |11 hrs ago |Posted By: shakti acharya

It's $19 billion buyout of WhatsApp that will help Facebook expand footprint in emerging markets of Latin America and Asia, especially India, where the mobile instant messaging app is very popular.

Founded in 2009 by Ukrainian Jan Koum and American Brian Acton, Mountain View (California)-headquartered WhatsApp is a Silicon Valley start-up with over 450 million monthly users.

It allows users to exchange text, pictures and videos using smartphones. The app is very popular among youth across Europe, Latin America, parts of Asia including India, where Facebook is beefing up its presence.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said messaging is a "very competitive space" and WhatsApp is a "clear global leader".

"It (WhatsApp) is in Europe, Latin America, India... Its kind of a clear leader," he told analysts on a concall.

The focus will be on simplicity, speed and reliability and "something that does not clutter the app with features and over time, people will pay for that", he added.

"WhatsApp has built a leading and rapidly growing real time mobile messaging service, with over 450 million people using the service each month, messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume and continued strong growth, currently adding more than 1 million new registered users per day," Facebook said.

Facebook CFO David Ebersman said the focus is now on growing the platform over the next five years.

"Considering that messaging in the number one activity on smartphones and the direct messaging business is about $100 billion globally for telecom carriers, our focus is on the next 5 years," he added.

On the acquisition and monetisation, Zuckerberg said: "Our explicit strategy for the next several years is to focus on growing and connecting everyone in the world.

"WhatsApp has a strong presence internationally...but it's a fragmented market with many competitors. Outpacing them right now is critical. Once we get to be a service with 1 billion, 2 billion, 3 billion people, there are many clear ways that we can monetise," he said.

Koum, who expects the smartphone userbase globally to touch 5 billion in the next few years, said the alliance with Facebook will give WhatsApp "the flexibility to grow and expand, while giving me, Brian, and the rest of our team more time to focus on building a communications service that's as fast, affordable and personal as possible."

WhatsApp is the biggest acquisition till date for the Menlo Park-headquartered firm. In 2012, it had acquired picture-sharing app Instagram for about $1 billion. Last year, its $3 billion-bid to acquire photo sharing app Snapchat got turned down.

Facebook, which expects to close the deal his year, will pay WhatsApp $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stocks and another $3 billion in restricted stock that vests over several years.

Facebook to celebrate 10th birthday on Tuesday

Facebook will celebrate its 10th birthday on Tuesday, an occasion likely to spur an outpouring of reflection on its past and speculation about its future.

   

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg watches a demonstration of the company's new video chat feature on Wednesday at Facebook headquarters.

Mark Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook" from his dorm room at Harvard University on Feb. 4, 2004. The site was conceived as a way to connect students, and let them build an online identity for themselves.

It has since expanded to cover a large swath of the planet, with more than 1.2 billion people -- one-seventh of the world's population -- using its site on a monthly basis, according to the company's own recent figures.

Zuckerberg reflected on the 10-year milestone at an industry conference in Silicon Valley this week. Not surprisingly, at the start he never envisioned Facebook becoming so large or influential. After launching the initial version, "it was awesome to have this utility and community at our school," he said at the Open Compute Project Summit.

He figured at the time that someone, someday would build such a site for the world. "It didn't even occur to me that it could be us," he said.

Since then, Facebook's site and its business, now a public company, have changed dramatically. There are now more than a trillion status updates, text posts and other pieces of content stored within its walls -- the company is trying to index them as part of its Graph Search search engine.

The company was slow to react to the important mobile market, and when it went public in 2012 investors were skeptical it would be able to monetize its service on smaller screens. But this week it reported that more than half its ad revenue now comes from mobile devices.

All the while, Facebook is making its ad business smarter, using targeting tools to show ads it deems most relevant.

The company is also experimenting with new ways to present content. Next week it will release Paper, an iPhone app that provides a new way to share photos and published articles.

It's part of a larger effort Facebook hinted at this week to release a variety of standalone apps for different tasks.

The company is also trying to bring the Internet to more people in the world, an effort that's part philanthropy and part business sense as Facebook aims to reach its next billion users. Asked this week why he launched the project, called Internet.org, Zuckerberg suggested he feels a weight of responsibility.

"There aren't that many companies in the world that have the resources and the reach that Facebook has at this point," he said.

The company hasn't said yet how it plans to celebrate the anniversary, except that it will talk about how it has "changed the world" in the past 10 years, and what the next decade might hold in store.

It's not the only milestone Zuckerberg has coming up: In May, he'll celebrate his 30th birthday.

Mudassir Khan: .bike, .guru new additions to domain namesNine ne...

Mudassir Khan: .bike, .guru new additions to domain names
Nine ne...: .bike, .guru new additions to domain names Nine new domain names have been reportedly made available as the internet domain names sys...

.bike, .guru new additions to domain names

Nine new domain names have been reportedly made available as the internet domain names system undergoes a radical change.

The new web address suffixes, include .bike, .clothing, .singles and .guru and the new names are expected to be released at a rate of 10-a-week.

According to the BBC, the new names, formally known as generic top level domains (gTLDs) are currently open only to those with registered trademarks and will be open to the general public at the end of January 2014.

The report said that last month four new domains were launched that included the Arabic word for 'web', the Chinese word for 'game' and the Russian words for 'online' and 'web site'.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) believes that the new set of names will transform the way business is done online and will help consumers easily find specific content within each extension.

The report said that Icann has invited companies to submit applications for names they would like to register and request for new names include the likes of .porn, .ninja, and .ferrari.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality!!!